Two Chicago Police Officers File Suit Over Whistleblower Retaliation

By aaroncynic in News on Nov 2, 2012 5:20PM

Two undercover Chicago police officers have filed a whistleblower lawsuit in federal court this week. The Chicago Tribune reports officers Shannon Spalding and Daniel Echeverria filed the suit after they reported illegal activities of fellow officers to their superiors and were told to ignore the issue. They then went to the FBI and claimed some of their own commanders retaliated against them.

The criminal complaint, published by NBC5, alleges Spalding and Echeverria had their identities compromised, were reassigned several times to lesser roles and in one case, assigned to the police academy with no access to phones or radios, and were placed “effectively on ‘house arrest.’” during an investigation of two officers, Sgt. Ronald Watts and Officer Kallat Mohammed. Watts and Mohammed were under investigation by Spalding and Echeverria for shaking down and robbing drug couriers and framing a confidential informant.

Both officers told the Tribune they had conflicting feelings participating in the investigation, but they’re both proud of and regret it, and that they ultimately did the right thing. Spalding told the Tribune: "At the end of the day, we're officers. It's information someone has to do something about. Even if it's drug dealers or people from the projects, they deserve to be protected."